80th Anniversary of the First 3-Point Hitch Tractor to be Commemorated

Harry Ferguson demonstrates the new 1936 Ferguson-Brown Type A tractor with 3-point hitch.

In 1936 the first production tractor incorporating the Ferguson System, (3-point hitch with automatic draft control), the Ferguson-Brown Type A and the first 3-point implements began production at David Brown’s facilities in Huddersfield, U.K. The Ferguson-Brown Type A led to the production of the Ford-Ferguson 9N in 1939 and subsequently the Ferguson TE and TO models.

The Ferguson System, invented by Harry Ferguson, has been lauded as the greatest advance in farm mechanization. Nearly every tractor made today incorporates a version of Ferguson’s 3-point hitch. Other Ferguson patents include lightweight plows, a dual clutch system providing live Power Take Off, pitman-less mower drives, parallel bar side delivery rakes, side-mounted hay balers, forage harvesters and combines, trip shank field tillers, pressure-control hitches and many more.

2016 also marks the 70th anniversary of the start of Ferguson TE-20 production in 1946, the 60th anniversary of Ferguson 35 production in the UK in 1956 and the 60th anniversary of Ferguson 40 production in Detroit in 1956. 2016 also marks the 90th anniversary of Ferguson’s “Master Patent” for “Apparatus for Coupling Agricultural Implements to Tractors Automatically Regulating the Depth of Work,” number 253566, in June 1926.

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FENA will commemorate these milestones with special displays and events at the 2016 FENA Exposition, Sept. 15-18, at Republic, Missouri, a special commemorative edition of the organization’s magazine Ferguson Furrows focusing on the history of the Ferguson System and a series of articles on Ferguson equipment to be made available to publishers of other antique tractor publications. Additional information will be available within the next 30 days.